I don't think I have ever set foot on People's Park, but I am wholeheartedly behind the campaign to save it from housing.

The land has been used by generations of Sudbury people for their leisure time. The only reason it was sold to the NHS was so they could build a hospital. They haven't. They've already flogged off half for housing and now want to do the same with the remainder.

I've heard some people say they don't care if it's built on, because it's just a derelict field. Well for one, it's a point of principle. That land was for a hospital for Sudbury, not for anyone to make a fast buck.

Secondly, more houses equals more people, which equals more cars on the road, more children in your kid's classes, longer queues at the post office and so on and so on. Developers are more than happy to stick houses in every last gap in the town, but no one ever does anything about the infrastructure – the roads and the services.

And finally, what's wrong with derelict fields? I spent large chunks of my childhood playing in one, at the top of Chaucer Estate in Sudbury.
It was close to home, with no need to cross any busy roads, but far away enough from houses that we could run around and make as much noise as we wanted without disturbing anyone.

I think I was probably one of the last to enjoy a childhood like that, like my parents' and grandparents' generations did.

We'd climb trees, make dens, have water fights, use our imaginations and get plenty of fresh air and exercise, all unsupervised by adults.
Obviously it's been built on now. Disappeared under houses when I was 13.

You can say Sudbury has the meadows, but that's not much use if you live on the other side of town. Children can't get there on their own, and your dog will already be worn out by the time you've walked it there.

The hospital saga gets more complicated and ridiculous every week and I suspect we're going to end up with no green spaces and no extra services.

The NHS will sell People's Park for housing. Half of Belle Vue park will go to retirement housing and a health centre, which will free up both Hardwick House and Walnuttree Hospital to go to housing. The land by the bus station will go to housing and a few shops. And does anyone know anymore what the NHS is planning to do with the other land once earmarked for a hospital, in Churchfield Road?

The worst thing is that all of this is being done to the town by public organisations, not private developers.